Pure Chaos
by Rynn-Sama
Summary: It's the start of a new school year. Student Council elections are drawing near and there is a fight for the best and the Drama 1112 class has decided to put on a play for a class project. What happens when roles are picked by lot and someone has to wear
1. The Start of a New Year

A/N: Okay first off I would like to give a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Kerrie-Chan. She has been great to me and my writing so I guess in a way this entire fic is dedicated to her. Kerrie's the one who got me into Beyblade and the one who beta's my fics as well as has helped me grow as a writer. THANK YOU!  
Also big thank you to the people who are letting me use their OC's in this fic:  
Jade – Kara (Jade55)  
Liika – Kerrie (Kerrie-chan)  
Keo – Ojies (ShivaDarkwater)  
If I use anyone else's OC's I'll be sure to mention it.  
Now for the part I'm sure you all knew: I DO NOT OWN BEYBLADE OR THE CHARACTERS FROM BEYBLADE! :)

--

Michael pulled on his baseball cap and slung his backpack over his right shoulder. He took one last look in the mirror and adjusted his cap over his blonde hair and grabbed his keys and wallet and walked out the door.

Michael smiled to himself as he unlocked his cavalier with his remote. It was the first day of his senior year and then there would be freedom. He threw his bag in the back seat and put the car into drive, heading first across town to pick up his girlfriend and then to school.

When he was finally outside the two story house, his palm hit the horn two or three times, blaring to let her know that he was outside waiting. He would have gone to the door, but he could still see her brother Robert's car in the driveway. Michael knew her family didn't like him, which was fine by him seeing as he didn't have a particular liking to any of them anyways.

Michael laughed watching her run out the front door in his baseball jacket that was at least two sizes too big for her. Her plum hair was pulled up so that it flopped over in two even pigtails. She was wearing short jean cutoffs and a baby doll t-shirt which hugged close to her figure making the baseball jacket look that much lager.

"That jacket looks ridiculous on you Koi!" Michael commented as she climbed into the car.

"Yes but at least people will know that you're mine! I don't want any girls fawning over my man, I want you all to myself!" Koi said arching an eyebrow seductively.

"What if I like the attention of other women?" Michael teased her.

"Shut up and kiss me!" Koi giggled and leaned towards him.

--

Liika brushed a strand of blue hair out of her face. She hated riding the bus to school, but her grandfather would never let her take the car nor, did any of her friends drive regularly.

The bus lurched to a halt at the next stop and Liika watched as more people piled on. She smiled as a familiar blonde clutching a skateboard got on the bus.

"Eniki!" She called out.

The blonde boy, Enrique, looked up and nodded recognition, smiling as he made his way to the back of the bus where Liika had situated herself.

Enrique and Liika had grown up together and had been best friends for most of it. Actually how it really started was back in the second grade when most of the boys in their class were afraid of Liika. She mostly pushed around boys that teased the other girls and it was surprising that such a small girl could hold her own. It was that year that for some reason Liika had chosen Enrique to be her lackey. It continued till about halfway into grade six when Liika finally realized that she actually liked Enrique as a friend and not just a "go-for". Enrique was glad for this realization because he finally didn't have to do everything for her. The two had been really close ever since.

"Only two more years of hell left!" Liika smiled as he sat beside her laying his skateboard deck down on the floor.

"It could be worse, I will admit that. At least we don't have to be participate in all of that first day crap that we had to last year!" Enrique said referring to the tradition of East High School where the grade 10's would do all of the first day orientation for the grade 9's just starting at the school.

Liika yawned, still not used to the early mornings after sleeping in all summer as Enrique rifled though his bag and pulled out a package of pop tarts. Tearing open the silver foil her pulled one out and offered it to Liika.

"Woke up late?" Liika asked taking the pop tart and took a bite.

"As always. Breakfast is overrated anyways," Enrique said pulling out the second pop tart and started to eat it himself.

"Have you seen Rick or Bryan much in the last week?" Liika asked between bites.

Enrique shook his head. "Rick, I think, has spent the last two weeks in New York with his cousins. As for Bryan, who knows what he's been up to. Probably hanging out with Tala or something of the like."

"I don't see how he can stand to be around that snot nosed rich kid!" Liika said as the bus pulled into the grounds of East High School. They both rose from their seats and Enrique grabbed his skateboard from the floor as Liika continued to speak. "Really, he has lost all perception of the world outside of himself since his head has been stuck up his ass for so long!"

"I can tell your feelings for Tala have only grown stronger over the summer," Enrique flashed her a joking smile.

Liika pushed him with a frown. "Just get off the buss smart ass!"

Enrique shook his finger at her playfully "You know you shouldn't talk of your friends friend's like that. What would Spencer say?"

Liika smiled at the mention of the tall blonde's name. "Spencer is different though. He may hang out with Tala, Ian and Kai but at least he's not a prick. I think it's just that their parents are in business together and that's why he's their friend. Besides, Spencer already knows how I feel about his friends!"

"What's your first class?" Enrique asked, holding open the door of the school for the short girl.

"History 12 AP" Liika answered as she pushed though the second set of doors inside the hallway.

"Ohhhh! Advanced Placement! Aren't you just the smart one?" Enrique teased.

Liika laughed and smiled wickedly. "Just because I hang out with stupid people like you doesn't mean I have to be stupid myself!"

"Hey! I resent that!" Enrique glared at her.

"Haven't grown up over the summer at all have you?"

Liika looked up to see silver hair offset by dark skin.

"Rick, how was New York?" Enrique asked ignoring Rick's earlier comment.

The older teen shrugged. "It was pretty good. Being back again with my old friends was fun. Still can't figure out why we moved to this hole."

"Well aren't you and Liika just radiating optimism today," Enrique said dryly rolling his eyes.

"If you want optimism Williams you're going to have to go somewhere else. It's the first day of school and you won't be getting any from me." A tall boy with lavender hard and sharp lavender eyes said walking up to the group.

A loud buzzer like bell sounded and the four teens loitered a while longer.

"Where have you been Bryan? Decide to drop off the face of the planet?" Liika said, looking at the newest addition to the group.

Bryan adjusted the shoulder strap of his bag as he spoke, "Ivanov had a party out at his cabin last weekend. A few of us ended up staying out there for the rest of the week."

"Figures..." Liika muttered.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Bryan asked as a second bell sounded.

"Well now that we are all officially late for the first day of school, I am going to head off to class and mess around with computers for the next hour or so!" Enrique smiled and walked off heading towards computer technology building that for some reason was in an isolated building out the back of the school.

"Do I even have to ask if you're in my History class?" Bryan said already starting towards the stairs.

Liika smiled "Yup. Rick, the Bricks at lunch?"

Rick nodded and Liika ran after Bryan up the stairs.

--

Purple eyes scanned the hallways as Oliver brushed green bangs out of his eyes. His host family had taken him to school that morning and accompanied him to the office where they were then directed down the hall and around the corner to the counselor's office. His school timetable was then selected and printed. By the time everything was set up, first period was already over and it was half way into the second. Oliver pushed open the doors to the library and walked to the far corner and sat down on a couch pulling out his French/English phrase book.

"Can't hurt brushing up just in case..." he muttered under his breath as he flipped though it trying to waste the rest of the time left in the period. After that would be lunch and he had just brought some money with him to buy something. Maybe he could meet someone then. It was doubtful but maybe he'd make some friend in the cafeteria. After that would be third period and he'd finally be able to start class.

Class. That was where he was going to meet people and that was where he was going to make friends. Oliver wasn't too stressed out over friends however; he knew that he was outgoing enough that he'd be sure to make some. Oliver held his finger in his phrase book, trying to keep his page, and reached into his bag pulling out his timetable. Scanning the sheet he rolled his eyes looking at the four classes in which he had been placed: Cooking, Math, Drama and Art.

"Well at least it's not going to be a lot of work," Oliver smiled as he talked to himself. His study abroad year was starting to look like it could be a lot of fun.

--

"So I saw Michael this morning in Biology. He was sure looking fine!" MingMing said as she slid her desk over so it would touch Koi's. On the other side of Koi, Matilda was pushing her desk over to the group as well.

If there was one thing Koi did not miss over the summer it was MingMing. Of course MingMing was the captain of the cheerleading team this year and if Koi wanted that spot her senior year, she would have to do a whole lot of butt kissing. It didn't help that MingMing had a strange interest in Koi's boyfriend; which annoyed Koi to no end.

"Yeah, he did look pretty good today didn't he? I'm totally excited that he bleached his hair over the summer. That look totally does great things for him!" Koi said as she pulled Michael's large baseball jacket out of her bag and put it on as if to point out the fact that she was going with him. "Boy, isn't this classroom kind of chilly?"

Matilda nodded. "Yeah it is... Too bad my sweater is in my locker. Hey isn't Johnny in that biology class too?"

MingMing nodded as she opened her math 11 text book. "Uh huh. I cannot believe that I failed this class last year! It really sucks that I have to redo it. I hate math! It's not like it's useful anyways!" MingMing flipped her turquoise hair over her shoulder as she spoke. "At least this time I get to take it with my two best friends!"

"How come you and Johnny don't hook up? I mean you are the only two single people in our group and it's not like Johnny is that bad either. I mean he is on the football team." Matilda asked as she flipped though her binder to a clean sheet of paper.

MingMing laughed. "Johnny? Not that I have anything against him, but are you serious? No I would never date Johnny-boy. Defiantly not my type, I prefer the baseball team anyways."

Koi could feel her cheeks grow pink with anger, annoyed at MingMing comment. She smiled in spite of herself and decided to change the topic. "So now I need to hear about both of your summers! I am so jealous of both of you! MingMing I want to hear all of the sexy boys you met on the beach in Hawaii! And Matilda, I want to hear everything about your vacation to the Bahamas!"

MingMing jumped in before Matilda could say anything. "Don't worry! I even have my pictures from the trip here with me because I knew you were going to ask!"

Koi tried hard to listen as MingMing went over every detail of her trip but a conversation of a group only a few desk over caught her attention and she couldn't help but listen to it instead of MingMing.

--

"And then there was like this big blue thing and I was like oh my god! It's the OCEAN!" Liika said in a high-pitched voice.

Hilary and Enrique burst out laughing. Enrique cleared his throat and in his best falsetto started to speak, "Like oh my god! I am totally in a grade 11 class in my senior year! I so totally failed it last year! Oh my god! But now I'm totally like with my best friends! Hugs girlies!" Enrique's voice cracked at the end of the sentence, which made Hilary and Liika laugh even harder.

"Like I totally wish I had a brain!" Hilary finished and the three burst into laughter again.

As Liika finally calmed herself she picked up her calculator. "We really need to get started on these problems," Liika said with a hint of laugher still in her voice.

"You are absolutely right," Hilary said trying to calm herself.

Enrique flipped open his textbook. "Do we really have to? I was having so much fun!"

Liika giggled and shoved Enrique. She then picked up her pencil and started to work out some of her equations.

"Oh and so then there were these boys on the beach and oh you would have died if you saw them. And they were totally checking me out and so of course they came over and talked to me..."

"And then I totally slept with them all that night! 'Cause I'm, like, a slut!" Liika concluded as they could still hear snippets of the three cheerleader's conversation.

Hilary and Enrique lost it again and the three of them lost themselves in laughter.

Hilary slapped Liika playfully. "Hey! I thought that we were going to start working! And here you go distracting us again."

Liika laughed wiping a tear from her eye. "I'm sorry, it's just that MingMing totally set's herself up for it!"

The finally settled down to work and didn't notice as the tall plum haired girl excused herself from the classroom. After a few minutes passed the plum haired girl entered the classroom again and on her way back to her group of friends stopped by Liika's desk. Leaning on the desk Koi just stared at Liika's workbook.

"Can I help you?" Liika asked dryly. She couldn't work with someone looming over her.

Koi just smiled sweetly "Oh, it's nothing really. You and your friends are pretty funny." There was a hint of sarcasm in the girl's tone.

Liika just stared back into Koi's emerald eyes. Hilary and Enrique just continued on with their work.

They just stared at each other for a few moments. It was an awkward silence as the two girls continued their staring contest. It was finally Liika who spoke.

"You know, if you don't have anything else to say I'd appreciate it if you went on your merry little way and left me to do my work."

Koi looked down at Liika's workbook for a moment and another smile crept to her lips. "You know, you are using the wrong formula for these questions," Koi pointed to a few of the questions on Liika's page. "None of your answers are correct."

Hilary leaned over to look at Liika's work "I hate to say it Liika, but she's right. You're calculating the absolute mean instead of the square root mean."

Liika didn't miss a beat joining back into the conversation, not flushed at all by the mistake that the cheerleader had pointed out. "Thank you so much Hilary for pointing out the obvious. I already get the square root mean and was trying to work on other types of means."

"Koi? What are you going?" MingMing called from a few desks over.

"Nothing," Koi smiled as she walked back to her desk.

As soon as Koi was gone and was finally seated in her own desk Liika broke out her eraser.

--

Liika walked out of the front doors of the school into the area known by the students as the 'bricks'. It was right outside of the cafeteria, which happened to be a big brick building. The windows in the cafeteria had large windows with sills that you could sit in. The area was usually populated by the smokers because it was the only area around the school where you were allowed to smoke. Spotting Rick sitting in one such spot Liika walked over to him.

"Anything exciting happen so far?" Liika asked as she pulled a brown paper sack out of her backpack.

"You expect anything wonderful to happen in English or Auto body? I'm just excited that I'm going to now have the resources to work on that piece of shit my parents gave me for a car." Rick said biting into his apple. "First thing is to get it working."

"Well at least you have a car. You're already beating some people there," Liika said kicking his shoe.

"Hn, I guess you're right!" He laughed.

"You know, that class about the American political system today was almost interesting compared to my physics class."

Liika looked up to see Bryan who had just arrived. "That is that exact reason why I am not taking physics. Oh man! You should have been in my math class. We have like half the cheerleading squad in it and they wouldn't shut up! I swear none of them have an IQ higher than that of a dog."

"Who cares about brains? I wouldn't mind tossing one of them around in bed. I'm sure they'd be a lot of fun." Rick said winking at Bryan.

"I cannot believe you just said that!" Liika said playfully hitting Rick on the shoulder.

"I hope you're not talking about tossing the little witch around in bed because she sure wouldn't be worth it."

The three teens looked up to see a tall red headed senior followed by his usual crowd of a blue haired boy about his height, Kai, a taller blonde, Spencer, and a short teen with navy hair, Ian. Liika just glared in their direction.

"What Liika? Nah, I'm talking about that cheerleader with the long pink hair. Mmm, what I'd give for a night with her!" Rick replied to which the other boys in the group minus the Spencer started to snicker.

"I knew you had better taste than Liika, Anderson." Tala smiled, flicking the ashes off of the end of his cigarette and then took a drag.

"That's just disgusting..." Liika said eyeing his cigarette.

Tala just smirked and then flicked the ashes again in her direction.

Liika rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Rick. "I cannot believe you would talk about my friend that way! Besides I don't think you'd have a chance in hell with Mariah. She's way too good for you!"

"You better not let Jagen hear you talking about his girlfriend like that either." Spencer said from the back of the group.

Liika just smiled at him. "Thank you Spencer. It's nice to see that there are some males here who actually think with their brain."

"Meh, what's Robert gonna do about it?" Rick shrugged.

"Yo! What up?" Enrique smiled as he joined the group.

"Well now that the IQ of this gathering has dropped dramatically, we won't be staying long. Bryan, party this weekend at my place? Are you game?" Tala asked the tall lavender haired teen.

Bryan shrugged. "Yeah I guess."

"You know what? I'm sick of all of you at the moment! Spencer, you have drama next don't you?" Liika asked as she picked her backpack back up.

Spencer nodded and Ian rolled his eyes. "We all do dumb-ass. Remember how drama is the easiest way to get credit in high school?"

Liika glared at the short boy. "Ian, go shove your head up Tala's ass. I'm sure he'd like it."

Enrique knew that nothing good could come out of a confrontation between Liika and Tala's Nazi panzers. How Liika became friends with one and formed a crush on the other was un-known to him. "Hey Liika, I forgot to grab a second pop-tart for lunch. Wanna go to the caf. with me to get something?"

Liika knew what Enrique was trying to do and she smiled. "Yes, but only if you buy me lunch too. I was planning on leaving anyways."

"What the hell? I'm not spending my money on you! Go eat your own allowance and leave mine alone!" Enrique said.

"Are you really that poor Williams that you can't treat a girl to lunch?" Kai laughed.

Tala smiled, amused. "It's not that he can't afford to Kai. Now tell me honestly, if you were Williams, would you want to treat the witch to lunch?"

"Enrique, let's just go!" Liika said walking away.

--

"Tyson, that's just gross! Please learn to eat with your mouth closed!" Hilary said smacking Tyson upside the head.

"If you don't like it then don't sit across from me at lunch Hilary!" Tyson replied though his peanut butter sandwich.

"Do any of you know who is going to run for grade eleven student rep in the student council elections?" Kenny said from behind the screen of his laptop.

Keo flipped her wavy dark brown hair over her shoulder as she sat down in the chair next to Hilary. "When are the elections?"

Kenny looked up from his laptop "They are in about three weeks. Candidates are going to be announced this Friday and then starting next Monday, they'll have two weeks to campaign. There really isn't any question on who will be running for council president. It'll probably be Tala, Brooklyn and MingMing. There needs to be a grade 11 and 10 rep though."

"Why worry about it before the candidates are announced? It's not like we can really do anything until then." Max said opening a brown paper lunch bag and took out an apple.

"You all got into Drama with me didn't you?" Keo said excitedly. "My horoscope for the month said 'creative educational pursuits will payoff. Try to visit friends or relatives you don't get to see often. You should be putting in some overtime. Don't prejudge. You may get drawn into a personal situation that will not be to your liking.' I think that the creative educational pursuits it mentioned will be in Drama this year!"

Hilary just stared at the Polynesian girl. "I cannot believe that you not only believe in astrology but you actually memorize your horoscopes..."

Keo shrugged. "It's not like it's that hard to memorize them. And you should pay more attention to your horoscope Hilary. You never know what opportunities you may be missing out on if you aren't looking for them. I'm a very proud Gemini! I bet you don't even know what your astrological sign is..."

"I had fun in drama 10. I made sure that I got into drama this semester! It's so easy too." Tyson said between bites if his apple.

"It is a popular class isn't it?" Max smiled.

Kenny barley looked over the top of his laptop. "I just need a fine arts credit and I'm no good at learning languages."

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages." Keo stated loudly.

Tyson stared at Keo. "What the hell was that?"

"As You Like It, act two scene seven." Keo smiled.

"As You Like It... that's a play isn't it?" Max said looking up from his lunch.

Kenny nodded. "William Shakespeare."

"Can you teach me how to memorize things like that?" Hilary asked laughing.

"Maybe... I'll make sure you memorize whatever you need for Drama." Keo winked.

--

(AN: Well that's it for the first chapter! I'd love to hear feedback R&R Luv ya all!)


	2. Onto Drama

AN: Wow, this fic got a better reviews than I ever thought LOL First off I'm not used to 8 reviews a chapter for like any of my fic's so this is a nice surprise. Thank you soooo much everyone for all of your great review and all your support Mwahahaha you can even tell your friends to read it too LOL! But yeah you're all wonderful! Thanks again for reviewing! Now onto the next chappy!

--

Liika pulled on the lock of her locker once again trying to open it. "Damn," she muttered under her breath, the lock holding fast. Inwardly Liika was smiling, knowing that her plot to stall for time was working.

"Fuck Liika! You're going to make me late for every class today! Just tell me your combination and I'll open it!" Enrique said, tired of watching her try for the billionth time.

"Hey! I didn't make you late for math! I was there on time unlike you who was took your sweet little time coming back from the comm. tech. building! And if you must it's 24-16-32," Liika said moving away from her locker.

Enrique picked up the lock, turned it a few times and it opened easily. "Well that was hard." He stated rolling his eyes.

"I don't see why you are complaining! Second bell hasn't even rung yet so we're doing fine. Here, shove this in there for me will ya?" Liika said handing her backpack to Enrique.

"Are you telling me that the only reason we had to come to your locker was so you wouldn't have to carry your books to Drama like the rest of us?" Enrique asked dryly as he bitterly snatched Liika's bag from her.

"Uh... yes?" Liika smiled.

Enrique closed her locker and shut the lock. "Whatever, let's just go to class," he smiled swinging his arm around her shoulder. "I'm actually looking foreword to drama again. It's such an easy class and it seems like most everyone will be in it. Including your favorite people too!" he ended sarcastically.

_Yes, Spencer is going to be in drama with us and if that means I have to put up with Ivanov for one more class a day I'll do it!_ Liika brushed his arm off her. "Would you mind NOT reminding me that I have to put up with Tala?"

"You know you looooooooooove him," Enrique winked.

Liika just rolled her eyes. "Open the door will you?"

"Yes mistress," Enrique laughed and pulled open one of the double doors leading into the drama studio.

Liika smiled to herself. Bryan had, as she expected, gone and sat with Tala, Ian, Kai, and Spencer. They were on the far left side, in the middle of the risers. Rick on the other hand, had stayed close to Bryan and sat in the left corer at the top of the risers where they met the black walls.

Enrique nudged her. "Looks like we're the last ones to arrive..." he whispered as the second bell rang.

"Whatever." Lika smiled as they crossed the room. She started to climb the risers to go up to the corner where Rick was sitting but her foot caught and she flailed in the air for a moment before she crashed down, hitting her right knee hard.

"Always have to make an entrance don't you Tomoda?" Tala smiled sweetly.

The room of teenagers burst into laugher, some a little bit more sympathetic than others.

Liika picked herself up, glaring at Tala.

"Shove it," she hissed, trying to stand, but she had hit her right knee hard enough that it made putting any weight on it whatsoever impossible.

Spencer got up to help her but Enrique had already slipped Liika's right arm over his neck and was getting her to put her weight on him.

"Are you alright Liika?" Spencer asked.

Liika forced a smile, "Yeah, I think I'll be fine. Thanks Spencer."

"OKAY! Let's get class started!" A new voice said.

The entire class watched the middle aged woman that was walking down the stairs from the office. She crossed the floor to the chair that was in the middle and sat facing everyone on the risers.

"Okay, I know you're wondering who I am, but over the summer there was some staff changes here at the school and I'm the new drama teacher. Now I don't believe in any of this 'Mrs.' stuff so just call me Sharon. Now since I don't know any of you, I've got a little survey thing here for you all to fill out..." the teacher said as Liika was scanning the classroom seeing whom else was in the class.

"Oh god. Enrique, we have two classes with the bimbo's," Liika said pointing to the front right, "and this time they are accompanied by their boyfriends."

Enrique laughed. "That just means all the more entertainment in one day."

There was the group of jocks that include Koi Jagen, Michael Parker, Matilda Reed, Miguel Aston, Johnny MacGregor and MingMing Chen.

Not too far left was another cheerleader, Mariah Wong sitting with her older brother Lee and Lee's best friend who also happened to be Mariah's boyfriend, Robert Jagen. Lee and Mariah's cousin, Rei Kon, was also sitting with them.

As we moved farther left and to the back of the risers we had one of the most popular groups in East High. Brooklyn Kingston, one of the richest kids in the school, rivaled only by Tala Ivanov, but Liika didn't care about Tala. With Brooklyn were Garland Wakeman and Mystel Kehl.

The final group of teenagers in the drama room was at the front and center of the risers. It was Liika's cousin Tyson's friends, including Max Tate, Hilary Tanaka, Kenny Johnson and Keo Taemo-Lowry.

It was then that Liika noticed the boy in the opposite corner of the room. She had never seen him before and he was sitting all by himself. He had lime green hair that framed his face and deep violet eyes. She was sure he had to be new or else an exchange student, 'cause Liika had never seen him before in her life. He had a European look to him though so Liika guessed he was the latter.

"Liika, take your paper!" Enrique said shoving a white sheet in front of her face.

"What?" Liika asked confused.

Enrique shook his head. "Not paying attention like always I see. It's a survey to find out more about us. Just do it and I'll hand it in for you glibly."

Liika glared at him as she snatched the paper away. "Give me a pen will ya?"

Enrique's face turned into an evil smile. "No! That's what you get for not coming to class prepared. Should have thought of that before you ordered me to shove your bag in your locker."

"Rick will you give me a pen?" Liika said ignoring the blonde.

Rick tossed his backpack at Liika and she caught it and started to rummage though it looking for a pen.

--

"Johnny, will you hand these in for us?" Koi said holding out the surveys that she and Michael had just completed. Koi was sitting on the riser just below Michael, seated between his legs leaning against his chest.

"Make you're boyfriend do it." Johnny said making no motion to move.

Miguel just rolled his eyes. "I'll do it." Miguel then took everyone's papers and handed them to the teacher at the front of the room.

Koi giggled as Michael started to kiss her neck. She saw her older brother look over and his crimson eyes darkened. She knew Robert hated public displays of affection and knew that he hated Michael. Just to piss her brother off even more she turned her head towards Michael and started to kiss him.

"Okay, I've been looking over your sheets and I've got a large range of reasons for people taking this class," Sharon started to shuffle through the papers and started to read some of the responses. "It's an easy class... I need the credit... My boyfriend and I wanted to take a class together... My girlfriend made me do it... Tala made me do it..."

"I wonder who that was from." MingMing said laughing.

"You know Ian does anything Tala tells him to." Michael said leaning forward and slipping his arms around Koi's waist.

"Oww!"

The six teens looked over to see Ian rubbing the back of his head and Tala looking pissed off.

"...I'm an exchange student..." Sharon paused for a moment, "I don't mean to single you out but Oliver Du...Du... Okay I know I'm going to slaughter the pronunciation of this name. But since you're an exchange student would you mind standing up and telling us your name and where you're from?"

Koi hadn't even noticed the unfamiliar student. Not like she had really been paying attention to most people outside her group of friends, though it was funny when Liika had biffed it coming into the classroom earlier that period.

The green haired boy behind them stood up. "I'm Oliver DuBois and I'm studying abroad from Brussels, Belgium."

"Belgium.... Is that where the waffles come from?" MingMing asked with a puzzled look.

Koi inwardly groaned but smiled in spite of her self. "Yes, there are Belgian waffles."

"Thank you Oliver," Sharon smiled and looked down at her watch "Okay, that took up a fair bit of time so I guess we'll just dive into our project then shall we? So for the Drama 11/12 class I've decided that most of you have had at least one year of Drama and maybe two so it's not like we need to start with the basics. So I've decided that for our first project we're going to put on a play. It'll be a bit of a stretch but we have twenty-seven enrolled in the class and I'm sure we can pull it off. What we will do is get the production ready for the beginning of November and we'll have some matinee performances and invite the local elementary schools to them. That of course will mean that you'll need to be pulled from some of your afternoon classes but I'm sure none of you will mind."

The room broke out into cheers and Sharon had to hush them. "So what I'm going to do is pass around a bag full of numbers. Pull one out and then we'll go from there."

The bag was passed around the room and everyone started to pull their numbers as Sharon ran upstairs to the office for a moment.

"Give me your number Ian."

Koi looked over and saw Tala throw his number at Ian, grabbing for the short boys paper.

"Screw off Tala! What's wrong with yours?" Ian said batting Tala's arm away.

"First you owe me after that comment and secondly I like five better than eight. Just give me the damn number!" Tala said and Ian surrendered his paper with the number five on it to the older boy.

The bag reached Koi's group and everyone started to pull their numbers.

"Twenty-six." MingMing read aloud as she looked at her paper.

"Twelve" Matilda said showing off her paper to the group.

"Twenty-five" Michael said.

MingMing smiled. "Our numbers are right next to each other!"

Michael winked at MingMing. "They sure are. But we'll have to be careful or we'll make Koi jealous!" he said mischievously.

Koi hit Michael playfully as she pulled her own number. "Oh! Look I'm number one!"

Sharon emerged from the upstairs office as she passed the bag to Miguel who pulled the last number from the bag.

"Does everyone have a number now?" Sharon asked as she moved across the floor to where her chair was, watching heads bob in her audience. "Good. Now what I'd like you to do is write your name on the back of the slip with your number on it and then I'll get the bag to go back around so I get all the numbers back, from there I'll be able to give you your parts. Now when all of you have retuned your numbers, I'll have the people with number 1-2 go up to the office upstairs, 3-22 you stay here in the main studio and I'll get 23-27 to go to what I think my earlier class termed the _green room_ backstage."

Koi pouted playfully. "I'm going to miss you when I'm upstairs all by myself."

Michael laughed and kissed her. "You're cute you know that? Now move so I can go backstage." He started to poke her and she giggled.

"Alright, alright! I'm moving just hold on a second!" Koi pushed herself up and then turned around, grabbed Michael's hand and helped to pull him up, not that he really needed her help anyway.

"I'll see you after school if not before then?" Koi asked and Michael nodded. Koi leaned foreword and kissed him again.

"I really can't stand to be in the same room as you two. You're making me sick!" Johnny said rolling his eyes.

"You're just bitter MacGregor 'cause you're not getting any and you haven't been for a while!" Michael smirked.

Miguel, Matilda and MingMing started to laugh but Koi just winked at Johnny.

"Don't worry Johnny, I won't tell him that I'm secretly seeing you on the side. And we especially won't tell him that you're better!" Koi said with a giggle.

Michael just glared at Koi. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that..."

"Hey man, you're girlfriend even admitted I was better that you. Better watch it or Koi's going to be leaving you for me!" Johnny said laughing.

"You know if you weren't my best friend I'd punch your face in." Michael replied.

"Okay, okay we get the point now leave because most everyone else that shouldn't be in the studio has already left!" Miguel laughed.

"Come on Michael, let's go!" MingMing said as she walked towards the back stage.

"See ya!" Koi said and then ran off in the direction of the stairs. As she was climbing up to the office, she could hear Sharon start to speak to the group in the studio.

"Okay so with the numbers that you've all pulled, that means that you're going to be our onstage cast..."

--

Mystel looked around the green room at the four other people situated there with him.

Michael and MingMing were seated on a couch together talking about friends, parties and other sorts of things that Mystel really couldn't give a damn about. It was rather annoying to listen to, and Mystel would rather die that get caught up in a conversation like that.

Rick Anderson was seated on the far counter in front of the make-up mirrors with his back leaning against one of the green walls, eyes closed. Didn't exactly look sociable at the moment.

That then left the green haired exchange student, Oliver, if Mystel remembered correctly. It couldn't hurt to be friendly with the kid and besides, it gave Mystel the opportunity to practice his French.

"Vous êtes de la Belgique?" Mystel asked in his best French.

Oliver's violet eyes widened in surprise. "Oui. Vous parlez français?"

Mystel shrugged. "J'avais étudié le français à l'école pendant les sept dernières années. Je connais un peu."

MingMing's eyes opened wide with amazement. "Mystel! I never knew you could speak Belgian!"

Oliver looked confused for a moment and then smiled politely while Mystel started to laugh. "In Belgium we don't really have our own specific language. We speak French." Oliver explained.

MingMing's cheeks flushed pink. "Oh, I didn't know. Oops!"

Oliver shook his head. "That's okay. I'm sure it could be easy to mistake something like that."

MingMing smiled. "So what were you two talking about in French?"

"Mystel is it?" Oliver asked.

Mystel nodded. "I'm Mystel Kehl. Nice to meet you... Oliver right?"

Oliver smiled and nodded. "Mystel asked me about Belgium and then I asked about his French and he told me he had been studying it for the past seven years."

"I'm MingMing Chen. I remember taking French back in elementary school! Here in Canada since we're a bilingual country they make us take it for three years. All I really remember though is Je m'appelle MingMing." MingMing said brightly.

"That's good though. At least you know something."

"There's a few other people taking French in our drama class. Hilary and Ian are in my French class and Spencer, he's in grade twelve. I'm sure they'd love to talk with you." Mystel said.

"This your first time to Canada?" Michael asked.

Oliver nodded. "Yes. I've been to England a lot though so I've had a fair bit of practice with English; though you speak a bit different than they do."

"You do a lot of traveling living in Europe don't you?" Mystel asked.

"Well it's just that all of the countries are so close together so it's really easy to hop the train from place to place. I mostly go to Paris and Liverpool. My mum's English and my dad's French so we have family in both places."

It was then that the door to the green room opened and Sharon walked in.

"Okay people, this is just going to be short. Now with the numbers you pulled you have chosen the role you will be playing in our production. The reason behind my doing it this way instead of through auditions or interest is because sometimes it's always the same people getting on stage or people getting comfortable in tech jobs. I want you all to work in areas of theater that you may have never worked in before. The number range that you all fell under, 23-27, means that everyone in this room will be part of the backstage technical crew. Sound like fun?" Sharon asked looking around at the teenagers.

Mystel shrugged as the others around him either shrugged or bobbed their heads in agreement.

"Alright, you guys can make your way back to the studio. I've just got one more group left to visit."

--

Max sat on the couch opposite the plum haired girl. They were upstairs in the drama office. Though the door at the top of the stairs there was an office like area on the right that was almost caged in. Past the office there was an open space with two couches and many randomly placed chairs. On the far wall a blackboard that looked like it hadn't been used in a while, sat just waiting for someone to draw on it.

The two sat in awkward silence, Max tapping his feet to a beat in his head and the girl twirling her hair around her fingers. It was finally the plum haired girl who broke the silence.

"You're in my chemistry class."

It was more like a statement than a question, but it brought Max's thoughts back to the present.

"Yeah." Max nodded, answering as he looked up at her. Max recognized her from the cheerleading team, but other than that he knew nothing about her. She was tall, for a girl, maybe only a few inches shorter than himself. She was one of those popular girls who was pretty and knew it. Every time Max had ever seen her through high school, which wasn't often, she had always been wearing tight revealing clothes that made guys look and want to touch, but know that they can't. She wasn't exactly the type of girl that Max would hang out with.

Silence passed again for a moment as the two stared at each other. They both knew that neither of them would care about what the other really had to say, seeing as they were in such contrasting social groups. It was a few moments before the girl spoke again.

"Isn't your mom that biology teacher?"

Max nodded. "Yup."

They sat again in awkward silence, the girl continuing to twirl her hair around her fingers.

Max fidgeted some more. The awkwardness of the situation was starting to drive him mad.

"So, you like drama?" He asked, this time making his own attempt at starting a conversation.

The girl smiled for the first time. "Yeah, it's a lot of fun. My friends and I thought that it would be a great chance to take a class together since we're in different grades."

"Yeah, a bunch of my friends took this class together too. I'm Max Tate by the way." He smiled back.

"Koi Jagen." The plum haired girl said in response.

"This drama project sounds pretty cool doesn't it?" Max asked, trying to keep the conversation going this time instead of having it die off into silence again.

Koi nodded. "But don't you think that it's weird that just the two of us are up here? I mean really what's this whole number thing about?"

It was then that their uncomfortable conversation came to an end. The door at the top of the stairs opened and Sharon walked into the room.

"Sorry to keep you two waiting, but I've been informing the rest of your classmates about their roles in this little production that we're going to be putting on." Sharon said as she pulled up one of the chairs and sat between the two.

"Now which of you was the one lucky enough to pull out the number one?" Sharon asked looking between the two.

Max watched Koi raise her hand slowly in front of herself.

Sharon smiled brightly. "Congratulations! You have now become the Stage Manager for Drama 11/12 fall production." Sharon then turned to Max. "And you will be her assistant stage manager. Now that I know what both of you are doing do you mind my asking who you are?" Sharon asked with a laugh.

"Koi."

"Max."

Sharon nodded. "Alright, now Koi, as stage manager, you're going to be my right arm. This show will not function without you. During rehearsals I will need you to be writing down cues as well as stage directions. It's a big job, but that's why Max here is your assistant. I sure hope that the two of you get along because you are going to be in close company for the next two and a half months." Sharon ended with a smile and a wink.

Koi looked at Max and smiled weakly. "I don't think I'll have any problems with working with anyone... I just don't think that you've chose the right person for organization. I'll be horrible at it!"

Sharon smiled sympathetically. "The two of you shouldn't worry at all. As I explained to the two other groups, the point of this exercise is so that all of you will be pushed out of your comfort zones. You need to gain experience in areas of theater that you may have never worked in before. And don't worry too much about the responsibility of the position Koi! I'm here if you need anything and Max's mark in this class is dependent of how much he helps you out. I'm sure he'll be happy to do anything you need."

_I'd help out even if my mark didn't depend on it,_ Max thought but then let it go. "Yeah, don't worry. I'm totally here to help out."

Max watched Koi nod. The poor girl still looked terrified but she seemed to calm a bit.

"Okay so here's what's happening. No one downstairs knows what their part is other than if they are part of the onstage cast or the technical crew. They also don't know what show I have chosen to put on, and it is both of yours responsibility to make sure that they don't find out until tomorrow class." Sharon handed Koi the bag of numbers.

"First thing you can do as stage manager is this. We are going to be putting on _The Wizard of Oz_ and in that page are everyone's parts."

Max watched as Sharon passed Koi a sheet of paper.

"On this paper are the parts in the play as they correspond to the numbers. What you need to do Koi, is to match all the names on the numbers to their parts and I need this done by tomorrow. When class starts tomorrow, I want you and Max to meet up here with me so we can go over the cast list before we present it to the rest of your peers. Also, I hate to impose this on the two of you, but I may, depending on how smoothly things run, have to set up some after school meetings with the two of you... Are you aright with that?"

Max shrugged smiling. "I have no problem with it. It's not that big a deal."

"I don't really mind either, though I have drill team practice until 5:30. If you don't mind, could we have them after that?" Koi asked.

"Don't worry too much about it, we'll cross that bridge if or when we come to it." Sharon smiled. "So I guess that's it. Class is almost over so I suggest we should probably go back downstairs to the studio."

--


	3. Tala got WHAT?

AN: Okay well here is chapter three! Thanks for the reviews! If you've got any suggestions or comments on the story I'd love to hear them Other than that just ENJOY!

--

Liika watched as their new drama teacher walked back down the stairs with Koi and Max in tow. Liika's knee was feeling slightly better but it still hurt like hell. She wondered how she was going to get around and was dreading the bus ride home. The tiny isles, crowded space and bumpy ride… her knee was in pain already.

"Okay, the bell is about to ring so I'll just let you know that Koi and Max here are your Stage Manager and Assistant Stage Manager respectively. Cast postings will be up next class so all of you have a great rest of the day and you're free to leave for your next class." Sharon smiled.

Liika looked up at Enrique who had already stood up. "Eniki, what's your next class?"

"History and it's with Voltaire. I'm going to die in that class I already know it…" Enrique replied in a whiney voice.

"Want to help me hobble to the cafeteria or library? I have a spare." Liika asked.

"I'm sorry Gibbly, but if I'm late for Voltaire's class I'm a dead man and you know it." Enrique said sympathetically.

Liika frowned. "Bryan!" she yelled, "Help me get somewhere so I can rest for my spare?"

Spencer spoke up. "I've got a spare next class as well. If your knee is still bothering you, I can drive you home if you want. I'm headed that way anyway."

"I'm sure Liika would looove that…" Enrique mumbled bitterly, with a hint of jealousy.

Liika's hear skipped a beat. Time alone with Spencer? SCORE! "Oh, I'd feel horrible making you do that. Really, I think I'm okay."

Spencer rolled his eyes. "I'm not buying that for a second Tomoda. You live on the north side and I'm going there right now anyways. I'm not taking no for an answer."

The bell rang and a look of terror washed over Enriques face. "Oh no! I've got to boot it to history!" And with that he ran off.

"We should wait a couple of minutes before we leave." Spencer said helping Liika up. "The hallways will be crowded and you're knee might get bumped."

Spencer was always so nice to her. She remembered when she first met Spencer back in grade six. She and Bryan had gown up on the same street when they were younger so they just automatically became friends. Not close friends mind you, but they hung out a lot, almost as much as Liika and Enrique. Bryan had gone to a different elementary school growing up because the boundaries were cut down their street with Bryan being on one side and Liika on the other.

In Jr. High, they were sent to the same school and that was when she had met Bryan's other friends. Her and Tala had fought from day one, she couldn't even really remember what had sparked their rivalry, but they were too embedded in it now to give up on it. Ian wasn't quite so bad. He was almost amusing to have around at times, but, to Liika, it seemed that Ian worshiped the ground Tala walked on and that pissed her off to no end. Kai, well he was Tala's best friend so that just made Liika hate him even more.

Spencer on the other hand was smart, funny and the nicest of the group. In grade eight, at a school dance where most of her friends had left her, Enrique was off flirting with all the girls and Bryan had ditched her to go to Tala's house to drink, Spencer had talked with her and even asked her to dance once. From that day on, Liika had been in love with him. Spencer was, well, Liika's first real crush.

"I really appreciate you doing this for me!" Liika smiled. "But why do you have a spare? You're the type that I wouldn't expect to be slacking off like me."

Spencer laughed. "My dad is letting me do some part time work at his law office. It's basically to get me ready for when I go to University. He wants me to be a lawyer like him. That's why I'm heading in your direction, my dad's office is down that way."

"Wow… that's really great! I'm sure you'd make a great lawyer! You're dad is the lawyer for the company Tala's parents own right?" Liika asked.

Spencer nodded. "That company and many others."

"You say your dad wants you to be a lawyer, what do you think of that?" Liika asked as they started to walk towards the hall. The second bell rang, meaning the start of the next class so the hallways should be pretty much cleared by now.

"It seems like a good job. Sometimes I just wish that he'd let me choose law as my profession instead of having him tell me that it is." Spencer shrugged. He then smiled slightly. "Such is the life of an only child."

Liika laughed, bobbing her head in agreement.

--

Judy was sitting at her desk going over her notes for her biology eleven class that would be starting in the next few minutes.

She sighed as she silently prayed that the grade elevens wouldn't give her as much grief as her grade twelve class just had. It was only the second day of the semester and Judy was already sick of that class. Whoever had chosen that the human reproduction system should be the first thing taught in a grade twelve biology class obviously wasn't the one teaching it. The next four and a half months were going to be very long. Judy was glad that there was at least a twenty-minute break between each class for her to gather her thoughts again.

Everything had been going just fine in the first period class that morning until Johnny MacGregor had yelled out in class wondering if they were going to have a lab in this unit. Of course the rest of the class had just gone down hill from there. Seventeen year olds could be so mature sometimes.

There was a knock on the classroom door and Judy looked up. There was a glimpse of royal blue hair at the bottom of the window. The person who the hair belonged to was not tall enough to look though the window.

Judy smiled to herself as she got up and walked towards the door and opened it.

"I was wondering when you would be showing up at my classroom Liika." Judy laughed.

"I wasn't sure if you'd have the marks from last year ready on the first day of school. I thought I'd give you at least the first day of classes before I started to pester you again!" Liika smiled cheerfully.

Liika had been one of Judy's homeroom students when Liika had first started at East High two years earlier.

The way that the homerooms worked at East High was that your second period teacher would be your homeroom teacher. Announcements were always made during the start of the second class and if needs be the teacher of that class would be the one students could talk to about marks, school or personal problems.

Liika had always been one of Judy's brighter students and always worked hard. The only problem was that Liika seemed to struggle a bit with her sciences and had refused to take physics or biology after science ten. During science nine and ten, Liika had always gone to Judy for extra help after classes so the two had become pretty good friends. Liika was obsessed with her marks and was determined to be her class's valedictorian when they graduated.

"And here I had been prepared and had the marks all ready for you yesterday!" Judy teased.

"So, I'm top of the class again right?" Liika smiled confidently.

Judy's expression changed to one of sympathy. "Actually Liika, the one person who had been on your tail in grade nine finally surpassed you in grade ten by point five of a percent. But you're marks are still impeccable!"

Liika's eyes darkened. "Point five of a percent? Judy you have to be kidding me! How could that happen? I am the top of the class! Take it back! You've got to recalculate the grades!"

Judy laughed. "Liika you know that I'm very careful with my calculations. I wouldn't tell you that he'd beaten you if I wasn't a hundred percent sure that I was correct. I know how you feel about your marks."

Liika pounded a fist into the countertop. "Okay who's the brain that beat me? Tell me his name!"

"I'm not sure if I should do that…" Judy said warily.

Liika rolled here eyes. "Mrs. Tate, it's not like I'm going to go out and kill him or something. I just want to know who is beating me so that I can beat him."

"Isn't just knowing you have a rival good enough? You don't have to know his name to beat him." Judy replied.

"No! Now tell me his name Judy!" Liika stated stubbornly.

Judy laughed. "If you promise me no bodily harm will come to him."

"What do you take me for?" Liika smiled mischievously.

Judy just shook her head. "You better watch out for Claude Wakeman this year if you want to keep your title of top of your grade."

Liika's nose scrunched up as she thought. "Claude Wakeman? I don't even think I _know_ him…"

"Wouldn't surprise me in a school this big. I'm sure there are lots of students you don't know here Liika." Judy said as the bell-ending break sounded.

Liika nodded. "I've got to run to math but I'm sure I'll see you around Mrs. Tate!"

--

"You know, we've got a lot of very tall munchkins… I almost was wishing that Ian had been one. He practically is a munchkin…"

It was the start of their second drama class and Koi and Max were upstairs in the office going over the cast list that Koi had drawn up the night before. Sharon was downstairs telling the class what was going on and then she was going to come up and take a look at the list as well.

Koi continued, "Robert is going to die when he finds out that he's a monkey!" she giggled.

Sharon walked though the door. "How do things look?"

"You know most of the class is going to rebel against this list. No one, well, save a few, will do their parts." Koi said as she handed the list to their teacher.

Max nodded in agreement. "Tala got the part of Galinda."

Sharon looked at them interested. "And why should that matter? It's just a part. Besides back in Shakespeare's time the only actors were male. He shouldn't have a problem just because it's a female role."

"Tala is one of the most popular boys in all of East High. All the girls are in love with him, but he's taken by some red haired bombshell that goes to the private girl's school across the river. Her family is rumored to be richer than his…" Koi started.

Max cut in. "Back to the point there is no way you'd ever get him near a dress."

"So you think that some of the boys will have problems with the roles they have chosen huh?" Sharon asked as she looked over the list. "Looks like there is more than one."

"The girls lucked out. I don't think any of them got cast in the male roles, but then again, there is an un-proportionate amount of male to females in this class." Koi said.

"So are the two of you ready to go tell your classmates what their roles are?" Sharon asked.

"No, but I don't think we ever will be. You know you're throwing a lot of the blame on us by making us present this list of death to them." Koi sighed as she got up.

Sharon smiled. "Don't worry. Leaders always get the backlash of the decisions. But in reality you had nothing to do with the roles that they have. They chose them by luck of the draw."

Max smiled half heartily. He could already hear Tyson rage about his role.

The three of them walked down the stairs. Koi could feel the room full of eyes watching them. She was used to having people watching her, but not like this. She was about to announce impending doom and chaos into the classroom.

Sharon quieted the talking that had been going on. "Okay guys listen up. Remember that you all chose your roles when you picked your numbers. Now I want you to pay full attention to your stage manager as she announces the parts. Go ahead Koi."

Koi nodded and looked at Max. He looked so calm. Of course he would. He wasn't the one that had to tell Tala he was cast as a woman.

Koi cleared her throat. "Okay so for our class production, Sharon has chosen to do _The Wizard of Oz_. There are many roles in this play and because there are a lot of minor roles we have some parts that have been combined. I guess I'll just start at the top of the list.

"The number one, which I picked is stage manager. Two, Max Tate, assistant stage manager." Koi smiled and looked up at her pink haired friend. "Mariah Wong, who pulled three, is our Dorothy."

Koi watched as MingMing and Matilda congratulated Mariah, who was beaming, having been cast as the lead role.

"Next we have Liika Tomoda, our number four, who will be our Wicked Witch of the West."

Tala snorted. "Very fitting if I do say so myself."

The rest of his group started to snicker as well as Rick who got a smack upside the head from the blue-haired girl sitting beside him.

"Class, let's keep things in order!" Sharon said.

Koi looked down at her list. Her mouth went dry. "So then we have number five which, uh, Tala Ivanov pulled..."

The class watched her with anticipation, all wanting the answer to the question that had come to mind the day before. What role had Tala stolen from Ian?

"…well, Tala's our…" Koi closed her eyes. There was no easy way out of it so why not just jump in headfirst. "…Galinda, the good witch of the North."

There was silence in the room. All eyes turned to the red head. It was finally Ian who broke the silence, bursting into loud laugher.

"Oh my god! Thank you so much Tala for taking that part!" Ian said as he clutched his stomach in laugher.

Kai shoved Ian. "Shut the hell up Nikolaev."

Tala's eyes darkened. "No. There is no way in hell I am going to do that part! Ian pulled that number first, make him do it!"

"Very fitting if I do say so myself," Liika mimicked, laughing hysterically.

Tala shot her a death glare worthy of the best.

Sharon shook her head. "First I'd like to say that I'm disappointed that you switched numbers, but since it was your name on the back of number five, Galinda you are. There is no way out of it Tala so you'll just have to deal with it. You deserve to be Galinda since you tried to cheat your way into a part."

"Just think how nice you'll look in a dress Ivanov!" Mystel laughed, Brooklyn and Garland both held smirks on their face.

Sharon rolled her eyes. "Okay can we just move on! Quiet up everyone!"

"Part six, Enrique Williams, is that of one of the Farmhands and the Scarecrow. Part seven, Johnny MacGregor, Farmhand and Tinman. Part eight, Ian Nikolaev, Farmhand and Cowardly Lion."

"I bet you wish you were the Cowardly Lion now don't you Tala!" Ian laughed.

"Ian, you're on thin ice. If you still want to have a face tomorrow, I'd shut your mouth right now!" Tala snapped.

Koi couldn't help the grin on her face. At least now Ian was taking a lot of the attention away from her. "Spencer Zaitsev is our Munchkin Farmer, a General and a Monkey. Lee Wong, Munchkin Mayor, a General and a Monkey. Rei Kon, Munchkin Coroner and a General." Koi smiled over at Matty and winked at her. "Matilda Reed is Aunty Em and a Lady of Oz. Miguel Aston is Uncle Henry and a General."

MingMing squealed. "That is so cute you two!" And Koi watched Miguel snuggle his girlfriend.

Koi then looked over at her brother. "Robert Jagen, Munchkin, General and…" Koi smiled sweetly at her brother, "…a Monkey."

Roberts eyes darkened. She knew he was pissed off. Koi giggled to herself.

"Kenny Johnson, Munchkin, Traveler and a Monkey. Keo Taemo-Lowry, Munchkin and Lady of Oz. Hilary Tanaka, Munchkin, Lady of Oz and a Monkey." Koi continued.

"Hold it there for just a dang minute! Why does Hilary get one more part than me! I'm the one that really likes drama! Besides she could memorize anything to save her life!" Keo shouted out.

Sharon sighed. "Remember how I said that you would have to open yourselves to different aspects of drama with this exercise? Well some of you will have cross gender roles and others of you will have more major or minor roles than you are used to. Please can you let Koi finish with the cast?"

Koi looked back down at her list and continued to read off. "Kai Hiwatari, Crow, Tree and Traveler. Tyson Kinomiya, Crow, Tree and Oz Lady."

"What the! I'm no Lady!" Tyson burst out.

Koi just continued, pretending that she didn't hear the protests of her classmates. "Garland Wakeman, Tree, Traveler and Oz Lady. Brooklyn Kingston, The Wizard of Oz. Finally we have Bryan Kyznetosov as Tibia."

Bryan looked confused. "Who the hell is Tibia? I don't remember that character from the movie…"

Enrique's eye lit up with mischief. "Oh Bryan, is _The Wizard of Oz_ your favorite movie?"

Bryan's eyes narrowed and Rick laughed.

"Williams do you have a death wish?" Rick snickered.

"Liika forced me to watch it more often than I would have liked growing up, smart ass." Bryan replied.

Sharon rolled her eyes once again. "Tibia is in the stage version of the story. He is the servant to the Wicked Witch in her castle."

Bryan laughed. "There is no way I'm being her bitch." He said pointing to Liika. "That's Williams' job."

"Whatever!" Enrique shot back.

"Can you two please grow up?" Liika sighed.

Koi started to laugh.

"Look we sill have to finish up with the tech job's so just let Koi finish!" Max said speaking for the first time since they had come downstairs.

Koi nodded. "Okay on lights we have Oliver DuBois, Sound is Rick Anderson, Props Michael Parker, costume MingMing Chen and last but not lest, set done by Mystel Kehl."

Koi felt kind of sorry for Sharon. The room was now a buzz of either excitement or dismay and Koi knew there was no way that anything would get done for the rest of the period. And there was still forty-five minutes left.

"Okay, okay can you please all quite down?" Sharon said and waited for the class to quiet. "Thank you Koi and Max, you two can go and have a seat." Sharon motioned to the risers where the rest of the class was sitting.

Koi nodded and smiled as she and Max walked across the floor and joined their friends.

"Now I can see that you're all a little worked up right now. Don't worry everything is going to be fine. This isn't supposed to be a Broadway musical or anything, it's just a high school class production. I'm not expecting any Oscar nomination worthy performances from you but I do expect you all to try your best. Now since I don't have all the copies of the script made, for the rest of today's class I want to do some 'get to know' you type games. Now I know some of them might seem a little childish or dumb to you but I'm sure once you try it, you'll find you like it more than you think possible!" Sharon said with a wink.

"First we are going to play the party game. Now first we need a host for the party… anyone want to volunteer?" Sharon asked as her eyes scanned the crowd.

Tala shoved Ian with his foot and Ian went flailing forward, landing on his stomach. Sharon looked down at him.

"Do I take it that you are my volunteer?"

Ian groaned and pulled himself to his feet. "What do I have to do?"

"Okay, you go outside just for a moment. We'll call you back in when we are ready and then I'll give you further instruction as to what you'll be doing." Sharon smiled and Ian walked to the door, kicked it open and stalked outside.

Sharon shook her head. "Okay I need four more people."

Keo's hand was in the air in a flash but the others in the room were more reluctant to volunteer themselves.

Sharon pointed at the dark haired girl. "Okay, I'll use you… what's your name again?"

"Keo." Keo smiled brightly as she jumped up.

Sharon's eyes scanned the crowd waiting for three more people to volunteer.

"If no one chooses to participate on their own that means I'm going to have to choose people to come up here." The room was still.

"Okay then… let's have the big guy in the corner, you with the blonde hair in the back and why not the infamous Tala?" Sharon said with a laugh.

"Oh, she thinks she's funny does she?" Tala muttered under his breath and Koi held back a giggle. She was now sitting with her group, Michael's arm around her shoulders.

Sharon looked at the four teens that were now standing beside her. "Just before we get started, do you two mind telling me your names?" Sharon said asking the big guy and the blonde.

"Rick Anderson."

"Mystel."

"Okay, so Keo, Rick, Mystel and Tala here are going to be guests at Ian's party. Now what we have to do is come up with the roles that these four are going to be playing. When Ian comes back, they will enter one at a time and by the way that they act, Ian is supposed to guess what they are supposed to be playing. Now, what role should we give Keo?" Sharon said, waiting for suggestions.

There was silence in the room as Sharon stared the rest of the class down, waiting for someone to open their mouth.

"Oh, come on! You're telling me that none of you are creative enough to come up with something? Here I'll do Keo but you better have ideas for the other three so start thinking now. Keo, you're going to be a maid." Sharon smiled and then stepped beside Rick.

"Now what is Rick being?" Shraon asked.

Once again the room was still but then finally someone spoke up.

"Arnold Schwarzenegger?"

"Thank you!" Sharon said and then moved to Mystel. "Now what should Mystel have to play?"

"A COP!"

Sharon nodded and then moved to Tala. "And four our last guest?"

Mystel snickered. "I think that damsel in distress might fit him well…"

Tala shot a dirty look at the blonde as the rest of the classroom started to laugh.

"I think that a Spice Girl could work too!" Liika shouted from the crowd, which made everyone laugh harder.

"A mime." Spencer shouted.

Tala gave a look of approval to the blonde and turned to Sharon. "I like the last suggestion best."

"Right. Mime it is. Okay you four go backstage. When you hear me go 'ding-dong' enter back onto the stage area in character okay?"

"Sounds easy enough!" Keo smiled.

Sharon stood up. "Okay I'm going to go get Ian from the hall and tell him what we are doing."

There was a bit of a hum in the room as everyone started to talk. Koi's ear wandered as she picked up bits and pieces of other conversations going around her.

"Student council is a bunch of students that have a bit of a say in the extra curricular activities that the school puts on for the students."

Koi looked over to see Max sitting with his friends and the exchange student, Oliver. Liika had also snuck down and was sitting with them.

"So you have elections for them?" Oliver asked.

Kenny nodded, "Yeah, all of the people who are nominated for the election have to campaign and then the day of the elections they have to present a 60 second speech over the announcements as to why the people in their grade should be elected."

"It's just an overrated popularity contest." Liika rolled her eyes.

"No it's not!" Koi said suddenly before she realized that she had just pushed her way into a conversation that she really wasn't a part of. All heads turned towards her and she could feel the heat in her cheeks start to rise. Koi really had to work on that eavesdropping thing.

"You're opinion doesn't count, you're one of them." Liika said with a smirk.

"One of what?" Koi asked her emerald eyes darkening.

"One of the popular bimbos who's world revolves around stupid things like student council. They really don't do anything for the school over than plan a couple of stupid dances that only the popular kids attend anyways. The rest of us really don't care." Liika laughed.

"I go to the dances sometimes…" Tyson spoke up.

"Student council does more than just that. How would you know? It's not like you've ever tried to become involved with school activities ever!" Koi snapped.

Oliver looked between the two girls in bewilderment. He didn't know what had happened for them to start fighting like that.

"You would never catch me dead on anything like a Student Council!" Liika shot back.

"Is that so?"

"Sure is!"

"Alright! Let's get this game started!" Sharon announced as she and Ian walked back into the drama studio.

--


	4. Who's running in the elections?

Wow… So yeah it's been a while since I've posted anything and I really wanted to get this chapter up before I left for China but looks like you get it FROM China. I'm hoping that the next chapters aren't so long in coming next time. Please enjoy and as always feedback is appreciated! Also I've had a lot of trouble with FF.N because my internet here in China is a little wacky. But FINALLY YOU GET IT!

xxx

Ian shoved a couple of his textbooks into his locker and grabbed some others. It was only the end of the second day of school and he was already pissed off. Tala was a great guy… okay scratch the great part but still he wasn't always that bad. It was just that recently he had been pissing him off. _Only one more year and then I'll be on my own_ Ian thought happily.

"I've got an idea for you!"

Ian looked up to see a plum haired girl leaning against the locker beside his.

"And what would this idea be Koi?" Ian asked as he shoved the last of his assignments into his backpack.

"Well see, I've got an idea to piss Liika and Tala off at the same time. If we work together on this we might just be able to pull it off." Koi said with mischief in her eyes.

Ian laughed, "Why do I not like the sound of this? Last thing I want is Tala shoving his foot up my ass and I have the feeling that this little idea of yours is going to lead me straight to that ending."

Koi giggled. "That is very true, but think of the adventure! It could be fun!" She winked.

"Well how about you tell me what exactly this little plan is before I agree to anything." Ian said as he shut his locker.

"Alright. How about you drive me home while I explain this little plan to you!" Koi said slipping her arm around Ian's.

"Why doesn't Michael drive you home? Or why can't you just take the bus?" Ian asked, looking down at the arm that was now encircling his, his eyebrow arched.

"Michael has baseball practice tonight and could you see me taking a bus? It would be terrible Ian!" Koi tried to talk with a straight face.

Ian rolled his eyes and groaned. "Fine but only this once and it's just because now I want to know what this stupid plan of yours is!"

Koi cheered. "Sweet!"

"Wait a damn minute! You're brother has a car! Why the hell isn't he driving you around!" Ian asked suddenly remembering about Robert's car.

"You're not going to take back your word now that you've already promised me a ride! Besides Robert is going over to Mariah and Lee's so it would be out of his way to take me home first." Koi pouted.

"Not like me taking you home isn't out of my way!" Ian muttered.

"Get over it! Now where did you park?" Koi asked.

"How does Parker put up with you?" Ian asked and Koi glared at him. "I'm parked out front."

The two teens walked out to Ian's car and got in. As Ian pulled out of the student parking he looked over at Koi.

"So are you going to tell me what this little idea that I'm wasting gas for is?" he asked.

"Okay, today in drama Liika said that she would never be caught dead on student council. So I thought it would be a great plan to nominate her for elections!" Koi said happily. "It's not like it's going to hurt her or anything, it's just a little fun. She'd get over it in no time."

"Right, so what does that have to do with me?" Ian asked skeptically.

"Tala is running for grade 12 isn't he?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Ian you are the only grade 11 in his group so that makes you the one he'll want running for representative. What I think would make this even more fun is that you DON'T run and then Liika would be the one who would automatically be in your place. Everyone else that is running will have grade 11 reps that they will want in if they win. Liika would die if she ever had to be on student council but think how much worse it would be if she was on student council with Tala!" Koi giggled.

"Girls are evil. You know I've heard it before but now I'm really starting to believe it… Liika's not the only one who would freak out if she were on council with Tala. I think Tala would rather die than have to be involved in something with Tomoda. You know he would kick my ass for doing something like this to him." Ian said shaking his head.

"Oh come on Ian! I'm sure you're sick of being pushed around by Ivanov. Just for this once do something that you know will truly piss him off." Koi pleaded.

"How do you expect to do this though? To nominate someone you need one person to nominate, five people's signatures to make it valid and then the signature of the person you are nominating. First how will you get Liika's signature without her knowing about it and even if you somehow did get her signature on the form, all the people who sign the sheet will know that you're nominating her. How do you know it won't get back to her?" Ian asked.

"That is where you come in my dear friend. I will get a nomination sheet and go around getting five people to sign it, _saying_ that it's a nomination for you. Once I have enough we forge Liika's sig and hand it in. Come on it could be a lot of fun!" Koi giggled.

"So basically I just shut my mouth about the whole thing and pretend that you're nominating me?" Ian asked.

Koi nodded "Yes my friend, that is all I need you to do."

Ian shook his head and laughed. "You know I'm going to regret this later…. But sure I'm in!"

xxx

"Did you hear that announcement this morning? I'm bloody pissed!" Liika fumed. She was over at her friend Mariah's house that Friday night for some Chinese 'hot pot' and the two girls were chattering in Mariah's room as they waited for Lee and Robert to come back from picking up the food.

Mariah laughed. "Liika it's not like it's the end of the world. It's just some stupid practical joke and I'm sure that you can guess who did it."

Liika's eyes darkened as she hugged the pillow she had in her arms close. "I know that's just the point. It's so like Koi to do something like this. I don't know why I didn't see it coming. But who would have signed a nomination sheet for me? I mean the only grade eleven people that Koi hangs out with are you, Matilda and her boyfriend… that blonde guy… ugh what's his name again?"

"Miguel?" Mariah suggested.

"Yeah, that's it Miguel. But Miguel got elected so he wouldn't be out nominate someone else, same with Matilda because she'd be rooting for Miguel right?" Liika said as she thought on the subject.

"This is very true." Mariah said trying not to laugh at Liika's distress over such a silly thing.

"And you. You wouldn't betray me would you? You're best friend? Mariah don't tell me you signed that nomination sheet!" Liika said now holding the pillow menacingly just waiting for a reason to throw it at the pink haired girl.

Mariah just rolled her eyes. "Liika if it makes you feel any better I didn't even know that Koi was nominating someone. She may have just gotten some random kids in her class to sign it. Knowing Koi it was probably boys that she flirted with just to get them to sign the sheet."

"Typical…" Liika muttered.

"Yes but about four years ago you would have been scheming those plans with her yourself." Mariah said nostalgically, nudging Liika.

Liika's body tensed at the thought and she quickly changed the subject. "Is Hilary coming over tonight at well?"

"I think so. She said that she was going to be helping Tyson with some of his homework and then come over. She wants us to save some food for her if she's late." Mariah winked.

"Are those two going out yet?" Liika laughed.

Mariah shook her head. "Tyson is too dense to realize that Hilary likes him and Hilary is way too stubborn to make the first move. She wants Tyson to ask her out, not for her to ask Tyson out."

Liika rolled her eyes. "If Hilary would have just asked him out last year when she started to like him I'm sure that they would be happily celebrating their one year mark shortly. But alas she didn't and so she ends up over at his house on weekends doing his homework for him."

"Maybe he'll get the idea by graduation?" Mariah shrugged.

"Highly doubtful!" Liika smiled.

xxx

Koi sighed as she dipped her brush in the stain once more and then started to apply it to the fence in front of her. It was Saturday morning and here she was outside in her backyard with her older brother painting the fence.

"You know Robert, mom and dad could afford to pay someone to paint the fence! Why the hell do they have us doing it? I'm getting stain all over me! Are they just being cheap?" Koi pouted as she looked over at her brother.

Robert looked so preppy. He was in an old polo shirt and had some nice khaki colored shorts that he had worn a couple summers ago. Even if they were old clothes he still seemed to look really professional in them. As well it seemed that the stain he was painting the fence with was actually staying on the brush because there wasn't a spot of stain on him at all. Koi looked down at herself. She had decided to take the day to work on her tan one last time before winter closed in and so she was in a spaghetti strap tank top and very short jean shorts. Her tank top now had spots of stain all over it and she was glad that she had decided to wear the gloves that her father had given her because they were now covered in stain.

"I don't think that they are making us do this because they don't want to pay for it. It's more that they want us to learn how to work, which you obviously haven't learned. It's not like painting a fence is all that hard anyways Koi, at least they don't have you scrubbing toilets. Be thankful." Roberts said as he continued to work on his half of the fence.

"Why are you always being so stuck up towards me?" Koi shot back.

"Well if you didn't act like a stupid little girl throwing herself at boys all the time I might not. You never used to be like that." Robert said.

"I don't know what you're talking about! I haven't had some miraculous personality makeover that you seem to think I've gone though." She shot him a dirty look, "How is it that you don't have a drop of stain on you?" Koi asked.

"Maybe try to be more careful with your brush?" Robert suggested.

Just then "Toxic" by Brittany Spears started to go off in some strange midi like format.

"Ooh! Cell phone!" Koi smiled as she dropped her brush and tore off her gloves and reached into the back pocked of her shorts.

"You brought your cell phone outside while you are paining?" Robert asked, amused.

Koi rolled her eyes, "Of course I did silly! What if I got a really important call while I was out here and didn't have my phone?"

"I highly doubt that you'd ever get an important phone call on your cell phone…" Robert muttered to himself as he continued to paint.

"Matilda!" Koi said into her phone, "What's up?"

There was silence as Koi was listening to the other end of the phone.

"Oh I know! I thought that Liika was going to freak out when she heard her name on the announcements yesterday! What I would have given for a camera at that moment. Her eyes looked like they were going to bug out!... I couldn't believe it either! And did you see how mad Tala was when he found out that Ian wasn't running! Ohmigod! I thought he was going to blow a blood vessel!... Oh yeah I know, but Liika doesn't even want to run so there is no way she'd get in!... Well who do you think will get in?... Very true, Julia did win last year but I dunno if Ming can make it all the way with Tala and Brooklyn being her competition… Yeah, last night Ming was really pushing us hard at drill team but it is good practice for everyone. I think we all need to get into better shape after the summer…. Oh I know! Did you see some of the girls on the jr. drill team? Oh man, please don't tell me that any of us were that bad when we first started… No, I can't do anything right now 'cause I have to paint a fence…. Yeah I know it kinda sucks… 7:00? Yeah that sounds good… Okay so I'll see you guys there… No, I think I can convince Robert to drop me off… Johnny lives near Mariah so he'll probably be going over there anyways… Yes I am sure okay? Alright I'll talk to you later!" Koi then hung up the cell phone and placed it back into her pocket and pulled her stain-covered gloves back on.

"So am I right in guessing that you are expecting me to drive you somewhere tonight?" Robert asked.

Koi looked up to see her brother already on her side of the fence.

"What are you doing over here? Why aren't you over painting your half?" Koi asked shocked that her brother was now beside her.

Robert laughed, "I'm done. See if you didn't spend all your time getting paint all over yourself, complaining or talking on the phone it really wouldn't take that long."

"Oh so now you're over here gloating that I still have like halfway to go?" Koi nudged her brother with her elbow.

"Actually, I came to help you finish up your half seeing as this is such laborious work for you, but if I'm not wanted I'll just leave." Robert said and he picked up his paintbrush.

Koi tackled her older brother, wrapping her arms around him "Aw Robert, you'd do that for me? You're the best big brother!"

"You just got stain on my shirt!" Robert said, annoyed.

"Uh…" Koi looked down and sure enough the stain that was all over her gloves had wiped itself nicely into streaks on Robert's shirt. "Well it's not like you wear that shirt anymore anyways. That's why you wore it to paint right?" she smiled meekly.

"True, I suppose. I rather think of it as the principle."

xxx

Tala flipped through the channels on the TV, not paying any attention to the programs that he was skipping though. It was Saturday night and they were still waiting for Ian and Spencer to show up before they did much of anything, though it was unlikely that Ian would be showing up at all that night.

"Can you please either pick one station to watch or turn the TV off?" the red headed girl beside him said with a laugh.

"Jade is right, it's kind of annoying." Kai added.

Tala pressed the power button on the remote and placed it down on the end table beside the couch he was sitting on and turned towards his girlfriend.

Jade had long light red hair that she usually pulled up into two even buns. Her crystal blue eyes sparkled with laughter.

"It really can't be as bad as you make it seem. So what if Ian isn't running for student council with you. Did you even ask him if he wanted to run?" Jade asked as she ran a hand through her boyfriends blood red hair.

"Jade has a point Tala, you can't make Ian do something that he's not interested in."

Tala looked over at the girl beside his best friend. Kai was dating Lucy who went to the same private Catholic girls school that Jade attended. It was through Jade that Kai and Lucy had met.

Lucy had sea-green hair reached to her ankles which she often wore braided and peridot green eyes.

"It's not so much that he isn't running for council as that the little bastard didn't tell me that he wasn't going to run. And the way he laughed as Tomoda's name was being read was a dead give away that he knew what was going on. Ian knows he's screwed me over too because he decided not to grace us with his presence." Tala said.

Kai chuckled. "That's just because he knows he's in for an ass kicking. It's actually funny though. Did you see Tomoda's face after school?"

Bryan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you may think it's funny but you didn't have to listen to her bitch for hours about it. I feel sorry for whoever nominated her. Liika'll try to kick some trash when she finds out."

Tala chuckled, "Yeah and she'd be the one to get her ass kicked in the end. Unless you or Rick step in to help her out. Tomoda's so little I don't think she'd stand a chance against many."

"I really don't think that Liika can be as bad as you make her out to be." Lucy spoke up, "Bryan hangs out with her all the time and Spencer never joins in when the rest of you go off about her."

Jade smiled. "Lucy's got a point. Don't you think that you could put your differences aside just this once? You'd still have a chance at student president then."

Bryan laughed, "Fat chance you'd get Liika to put her differences aside even if you somehow convince Tala to. She's a stubborn one."

Lucy rolled her eyes at how stupid they all were being over the whole thing.

xxx

Koi rolled her eyes. It was that time of the year again, the first day of the student council campaign had come and the senior drill team was decked out in full uniform and at the high school early that morning.

"All right girls! Just how we practiced last Friday!" MingMing said excitedly.

Mariah flipped a pink pigtail over her shoulder. "So who is on our student council line up for this year? I wasn't really paying attention to the announcements on Friday…"

"MingMing is running for grade twelve. Migi's going for our grade and then some girl on the tennis team, Emily I think her name was… anyways she's grade ten and some no-name boy on the jr. volleyball team for grade nine. I honestly don't remember his name." Matilda said shrugging.

Koi nudged the two girls. "I think that Mingie wants us to start," she said motioning to their captain.

The senior drill team was in the front courtyard of East High School, which was now starting to fill with students arriving for their first classes.

MingMing lead the squad though a fast paced routine, very similar to the one that they had used last year when Julia, the drill team captain the year before, had been running for student council. It seemed to be a tradition of sorts at East High.

Koi really couldn't believe that MingMing was using the drill team as her propaganda machine for the elections. True it had worked for Julia last year but it seemed dumb for them to be out in the courtyard that morning just because MingMing was running for president.

Their routine ended with a simplistic pyramid with MingMing on the top.

"Vote for MingMing to be on Student Council!" MingMing shouted from the top of the pyramid.

The girls received a large amount of catcalls from the general male population and MingMing smiled blowing kissed in several directions and then dismounted from the formation.

MingMing smiled. "Well, I'd say that, that went really well! Now, I've got to run to bio so I'll just meet you girls in Math?" MingMing said to Matilda and Koi, ignoring the rest of the drill team who were now dispersing in different directions.

Koi nodded and then circled her arm around Matilda's and led her best friend in the direction of the front doors of the school

"Don't you think it's pointless that we are supporting MingMing? I mean only the grade twelve's can vote for her anyway. Shouldn't we be focusing on Miguel? He's the one that's going to be representing us." Koi said as they made their way down the front hall to their lockers.

Matlida thought on that for a moment. "That's a very good point, but Miguel has his teammates from the basketball team to support him. And we're Ming's friends so that's why we're helping her. It doesn't matter if we can vote for her or not, it's more us getting the rest of the twelfth grade to vote for her."

Koi shrugged. "Okay. Ugh! I really don't want to go to chemistry this morning. We are doing our first lab and so today we find out our lab partners. Last year I had Enrique Williams. Now I may not be the best at science but at least though grade nine I got all my labs done correctly. In grade ten with Enrique we were lucky if we passed a lab. He used to always mess around with our labs, playing with the chemicals and things, and then we'd never get anything done on time. If I have another partner like him, I'm never taking science again!" Koi pouted.

Matilda smiled as she patted Koi on the shoulder. "Don't worry hon! I'm sure that your luck with be better this year. I'll see you in Math?"

Koi nodded. "Yeah. Have fun in English with Miguel!" Koi winked.

Matilda giggled. "It's not like English is all that much fun. Right now we are just reading a bunch of poems and analyzing them. Soon we'll probably have to write some. I hate writing poetry."

The two girls opened their lockers and grabbed their books as the bell rang.

Matilda sighed. "Okay, see ya later! Good luck with your lab partner."

The two girls hugged quickly, and Koi smiled. "Good luck with poetry!"

Koi walked off towards the stairwell at the front doors and fought her way through the massive population of students traveling the stairs as she climbed to the third floor.

Making her way to her chemistry classroom Koi said down and waited for her teacher, Mr. Bell, to start class. A few more students drifted into the classroom. Koi didn't even bother to open her textbooks because she knew that they would be going to the labs soon enough.

"Okay class, I hope that you're all ready to do some titrations today. I've got all your lab partners listed on the board and since we're in one of the smaller labs, we've got the usual pairs as well as four groups of three so I hope you don't mind. Just get into your lab groups, grab your textbooks, paper and pens and then we'll head over to the lab." Mr. Bell said. He was a medium sized man, with short grayish-white hair and glasses. To Koi he was the epitome of a science nerd.

Koi glanced at the blackboard; she hadn't even looked at it when she had walked in the room. Scanning for her name she read her partner's name. Make that partners' plural. She was in a group of three.

"Tyson Kinomiya and Max Tate…" she read aloud under her breath and Koi smiled to herself. Max's mom was a science teacher so this could prove very advantageous to her chemistry marks. She didn't know much about Tyson, other than the fact that he was Max's navy haired friend in their drama class who got cast in a female role.

"Don't bother bringing any of your books. Max here has us covered." Tyson said as he and Max walked up to her desk.

Koi pointed her finger at Max and she glared at him playfully. "You know, I have a boyfriend so if your stalking me you might as well give up right here and now!" Koi's face then broke into a smile as she giggled playfully and watched as a very faint flush painted his cheeks.

"We seem to be spending a lot of time together this semester don't we?" Max laughed.

"Okay, let's get out of here. I'm ready to play with some chemicals!" Tyson said winking. He then ran out the door of the classroom, following their classmates.

"Is he always this hyper in the morning? I'd love to know what kind of coffee he's drinking…" Koi asked puzzled as she and Max followed Tyson's lead into the hallway.

Max smiled. "Nah, he just gets excited in the prospect of blowing things up with chemicals. I think the only reason Tyson took chemistry was for the labs because he's been asleep for all the other classes so far."

Koi looked Max up and down. "You're not one for blowing things up are you?"

Max shook his head. "Nope, no dice. I actually like to get the labs done. Why are you?"

"NEVER! Ugh, I had Enrique Williams as my lab partner in science ten and it was horrible! He had more fun stabbing the frog than actually doing the dissection so we failed that lab. After the bio unit we did the chem labs and they were _horrible_. Everything was around the amount it was supposed to be. I don't think Enrique knew how to measure _anything_! Arg, it drove me crazy!" Koi giggled.

"Well don't worry, we'll keep Tyson in line!" Max winked.


End file.
